Mt. Fuji Children Park

Five small nations which made an environment element a theme

A child’s country is developed in a vast site to hope for Mt. Fuji and the natural environment becomes the theme, “the country of water”, “the country of wood”, “the country of the ground”, and “the country of the mountain”; it is composed of five small nations and “the town”. Children grow up to feel and sense the environment through their skin by playing, touching and sensing the natural elements of each country.

The environment which today’s children are left in

This concept began from an investigation from the social subject that children are left behind today. It was planned for children so that they can assemble to play independently through a life experience in nature as well as providing them with a feeling that they have become an inhabitant of each small nation. The preparation begins with an aim for the place where children find special value through such an experience, and learn from the abundance of nature. This helps them to develop a dream and adventurous spirit.

Universal Design

This project is the first example where a universal design was developed into in a large scale park in Japan, approximately ten years ago.
It went through a workshop with handicapped people at the stage of the execution. As a result, it was planned not to consider handicapped people uniformly, but to set up challenge levels to allow for the differences between individuals. The aim was not to change geographical features extremely, but to set up an environmental access level. The plan techniques were evaluated, and the project was awarded the Minister of Construction prize.